Jolly Sweater

Hello, everyone. Can you believe it is November already? Yikes – time to get serious about the holiday cards and decor. I have a big announcement today. I am now one of the design team for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge blog? Isn’t that fantastic? I am so honored to be among such talent. Today is my first official post. Hope you enjoy it. Read on – there is a helpful hint enclosed that could save you a headache.

Today’s challenge inspiration, number 266, is a sketch. It’s a great one.

I decided to use this sketch to make a Christmas card. I have been wanting to break into my new Stampin’ Up! stamp set – Christmas Sweaters, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

I started by stamping the sweater image onto Canson Bristol paper with VersaMark ink. The image was then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I colored the sweater with Zig clean color markers and put the sentiment at the top. It was die cut from SU! Christmas Greeting Thinlits from My Favorite Things (MFT) Wild Cherry cardstock. After trimming, I used a piece of Tim Holtz Christmas Deco Sheets paper to mat it, adding a bit of sparkle.

For the white panel, I extended the sweater effect by using the SU! Cable Knit dynamic Embossing folder. I love, love LOVE the highly raised texture this folder provides. BUT there are some tricks to get successful results without tearing your cardstock. A couple of tips:

Use the platform that came with your machine – not a magnetic platform or other specialty platform.

Lightly spritz your cardstock to moisten it slightly and place it inside your folder.

Place the folder with paper directly onto your platform. Do NOT use an acrylic plate on the bottom.

Place an acrylic plate over the folder with cardstock and run through your machine.

Rotate the plate 45 degreees and run it back through one more time.

Take the paper out and admire your perfectly embossed paper!

Now unfortunately, I also learned a new lesson while constructing this card. Wait until your paper had completely dried before running it through your paper cutter if you want a perfect, crisp cut! Oops!

I adhered the embossed panel to a wild cherry card base with score tape and embellished. with